Machine for beating napped hats



(No Model.)

G. YULE.

MAGHINE FOR BEATING NAPPBD HATS.

No. 250,321. Patented Nov. 29,1881.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE YULE, OF NEWARK, NEW JERSEY.

MACHINE FOR BEATING NAPPED HATS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 250,321, dated November29, 1881. Application filed August 11, 1881. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it. known that I, G. YULE, a citizen of the United States, residingin the city of Newark, county of Essex, and State of New Jersey, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Machines for BeatingNapped Hats,'fully described and represented in the followingspecification and the accompanying drawings, forming a part of the same.

My invention relates to certain improvements in machines for beatingnapped hats; and it consists in the several combinations of mechanismhereinafter described and claimed.

Napped hats have heretofore had the .nap raised upon them chiefly bybeating with rods upon a table, the felts being dipped in hot water fromtime to time until the completion of the operation. By such means oneoperator can finish that part of the napping process on but little overone hundred hats per day; and

the object of my invention is to substitute a' mechanical heater orheaters for the rods now used by hand, and to provide suitable means ofsustaining and moving the felts beneath the heaters that they may beautomatically conveyed through the machine. By the means I have devisedthe cotton formed in the naphat to prevent the felting of the fur fibersis speedily dislodged and the operation more per fectly performed thanwhen done by hand.

In the drawings annexed is shown my improved machine, Figure 1 being aplan of the .same with one-half the heaters removed to show thehat-felts beneath them Fig. 2, a side view in part section; Fig. 3, asection of the tank, apron, and heaters on line an 00 in Fig. 1, thearmsf being shown upon the shafts; and Fig. 4, an end elevation of themachine.

A is a tank supplied with hot water at any desired level. B B arerollers mounted upon the tank. (3 C are aprons carried by the rollers. DD are cones secured to the shafts of the rollersB B. E E are two othercones secured to the opposite end of roller B and a feeding-shaft,G,respectively. F is the drivingshaft, mounted upon the legs A secured tothe tank A, and provided with driving-pulleys H, an adjustable crank, I,and a worm, J, the latter meshing into a worm-wheel, K, upon thefeed-shaft G, and thereby transmitting to the rollers B B a much slowermotion than the crank I transmits. The rollers B B are mounted uponshaftsb b at opposite ends of the tank A, each roller. extending buthalf-way across the tank, and the remaining portion of each shaft beingcovered by a loose roll or shell, d 11,

over which the aprons from rollersB B move at the desired rate.

Guide-rolls L are shown applied to the upper side of the aprons O O, thelatter traversing the length of the machine side by side, and the rollsextending across both and turning freely as the aprons move. Upon theseaprons are laid the hats II, to be beaten, and as they move slowly alongupon the apron, driven by belts applied to the pulleys H and cones D 1),they are subjected to the action of vibrating heaters Z, which areattached at one end to vibrating or oscillating bars m arranged parallelwith each side of the aprons, and are moved up and down by mot-iontransmitted to the bars from the crank I.

The driving-shaft extending lengthwise of the machine, beneath the tank,the end of it provided with the crank is below the side bar, m, and thecrank-pint is fitted by a sliding block, a, to a slot, 0, in an armdepending from the end of the shaft in at n, and an oscillating motionimparted to the bar by the rotations of the crank. Slotted arms f arefitted to each of the bars m, and are provided with pins 0 adjusted inslots rbyscrews p. Connecting-links q are secured upon the pins 0, andthe vibration of the single side bar, m, is thus transmitted to the barm at the center and at the opposite side of the machine. Socketssaresecured to the bars at at intervals by hubs t, and serve to hold andmove the heaters or whips Z.

By means of the screws 19, the extent of the motion derived from thefirst bar 122 and transmitted to the others by the links 9 can bemodified at pleasure, the oscillations of the arm n being regulated, asdesired, by changing the position of the pin 6 in the crank I in anysuitable manner.

The water in the tank is kept hot by steam hats lieis thereforesupported by the surface of the water, and yields sufficiently under theblows of the heaters to make a very efficient bed.

By crossing the belt upon the cones D D the aprons B B may he traversedin opposite directions, as indicated by the arrows in Fig. l, hats Itbeing shown upon the apron G, to indicate their disposition thereon.

With the mechanism thus described the hats can be supplied to themachine at one end and pass under the heaters in the direction of thearrow '12 to the opposite end of the machine, where an operator canreceive them as they emerge from under the roller L and place them uponthe other apron, to be traversed in the direction of the. arrow to underthe other set of heaters.

If desired, the machine may be made with only one or two shafts m, andonly one apron employed to traverse the hats beneath the heaters.

The guide-rolls L act as wringers to extract from the felts a largeshare of their moisture as they leave the machine, and thus save sometime to the operator, who dips them in scalding water when heintroducesthem into the machine, either in a separate vessel or into the end ofthe tank A.

The beating-rods may be made of hard or soft rubber, or wood, canes, orother materials, as preferred, and are preferably fastened into thesockets s by making the same in halves, or with a cap and clamping thesame together by screws.

By means of thecones the speed of the apron relative to the heaters canbe adjusted as desired, and the slots in the armsf and it. also affordany desired variations in the movement of the heaters.

I am aware that felting-machines have heretofore been made containingmany elements of the combinations herein claimed but as the process ofbeating requires the employment of certain other mechanical elements notused heretofore, I will describe the difference in the processesperformed by former inventions and my present one, that its nature maybe distinguished from others already known.

In felting a hat-body a bat is formed upon a perforated cone of fur orwool fibers, and then subjected to a rolling and pressing operation in afelting-cloth for a period of time adapted to interlock the fibersthoroughly and constitute a solid tenacious felt. The first part of theoperation, termed hardening, requires gentle handling, and theapplication of a moderate amount of hot water, the hat-body beingfrequently unrolled and crozed or folded in a different position, toprevent the whole from felting into a solid mass. The next stage of thefelting or sizing consists in a severer rolling and pressing of thefelt, with the application of more hot water and less frequent crozing.The final sizing consists in a still harder rolling and pressing, andthe application of scalding hot water at frequent intervals tofacilitate the shrinking and consolidation of the felt, the bodycontracting'to one-half its initial size in these several hardening andsizing operations. Unless intended for a napped hat the body is nowready for drying, blocking, and finishing; but if supplied with anap-bat upon the whole or any part of its surface the same operationsare required to a great extent, to join the fibers of the felt and thebat, and to prepare the body for the beating operation.

As the nap, if formed wholly of fibers capable of felting, would becomemerely a part of the original body by augmenting its thickness whensubjected to the hot water, rolling, pressing, and crozing to which itis subjected in the so-called scalding operation, which is employed tostick and secure the nap to the bodyfelt, it is necessary to mix otherfibers therewith to prevent such a result, and to make the nap adhere tothe body-felt in separate fibers instead of a compact mass. To effectthis result cotton fibers are intimately mixed with the fur beforemaking the nap-bat, and the two are thusformed into a hat together,which is then applied to the hat-body, as described above.

The object of the scalding operation is to get the fur fibers insertedendwise into the bodyfelt, that they may project uniformly therefromwhen the cotton is removed and although this operation, or its results,is rather different from the sizing of a hat-felt, which results in thehardening of all the fibers into a compact fabric, the same machinery islargely applicable, if adapted merely to roll and press the felt body,in either case. This is not at all true of the beatin g operation, theobject of which is to remove the cottonfrom between the nap-fibers, andwhich is not effected by any rolling or pressing, but by an oppositesort of action, tending to open and loosen the fur fibers and shake outthe cotton fibers which have never been joined to one another or to thefur by the scalding process. performed, the hat is laid upon a bench orplank and thoroughly wet with hot water, and then beaten with a rod ineach hand of the operator. The cotton is discharged by degrees, and theoperator removes it partly by combing out and partly by washing in hotwater. As performed by my machine, the hat is traversed slowly under aseries of rapidly-vibrating rods under the influence of more or less hotwater, as required, and turned over or changed to expose all parts tothe beating operation, the same as when beaten by hand, each time thatit emerges from the action of the rods at the end of its traverse. Toeffect these changes with ease and rapidity, my double machine isprovided with two aprons, traveling in opposite directions, so that whenit is thrown out'by one of the aprons it can be turned over and fed into the other. The heating operation is thus not only opposite in itscharacter to the felting process, but involves the use of heatingrods,as Well as mechanism to vibrate them rap As usually idly, neither ofwhich mechanical elements ex ist in machines constructedfor the prioroperations to which the hat-body is subjected.

It is therefore evident that although Imight use certain elementspreviously know n-as the traveling apronin a machine for performing theheating process, I use them to secure a to-- tally difl'erent object,and in an essentially new combination.

Having thus fully described the construction and operation of myinvention, I do not limit myself to the precise construction shown, as

various other means of'adjusting the different parts may be substitutedfor any of those employed; but

Iclaim myinvention in the following manner:

1. In a machine for beating napped hats, the combination of a mechanismfor support-v ing and moving the hat-bodies under the beaters, as apronO, a mechanism for beating the hat-bodies, as rods Z, a mechanism forholding and moving the heaters, as s, and a mechanism for vibrating theheaters, substantially as herein described.

2. In a beating-machine, the mechanism for vibrating the rods or whips,consisting of the shaft m, sockets or holders 8, vibrating arm n, andcrank I, the whole combined and operated substantially as described.

'apron, as U, and driving-shaft provided with cone or equivalent meansof varying the speed of the apron beneath the heaters, substantially asand for the purpose set forth.

4. In combination with the apron O, mounted upon rollsv on a tank, asdescribed, the beaters l, operated as described, and the guide-rolls LL, for pressing the apron down to the level of the water in the tank,substantially as shown and described.

5. In a double beating-machine, the combination, with two sets ofheaters operated by suitable mechanism, of two aprons operatedsubstantially as described, and mechanism for moving the aprons at therequired velocity in either direction, substantially as and for thepurpose set forth.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of twosubscribing witnesses.

GEORGE YULE. Witnesses:

CHARLES A. MOLAR'IY, THOS. S. CRANE,

